Mastermind Club Review – And A Master of None

Mastermind Club pitches itself at ‘the action man,’ at the ‘man who takes action in his life’…it’s all about action, action, action. Put together by dating guru, Dean Cortez, this training is fundamentally about one thing specifically, and one thing only: a guy getting laid and improving his odds of getting laid, including with the hottest girls around. It talks about dating but “unattainable” here is of the sexual variety.

Mastermind Club logo

So, guys looking for serious relationship tips need to walk away. Picking up and ‘dating’ beautiful girls, preferably with big tits, is what this is all about. Mastermind Club presents its training for horny guys with a series of PDFs and audio and video files. The trick here is to be the master of all things to do with (one night stand) dating and sexual prowess, i.e. to be the mastermind of all such things.

Ongoing information “from this day forward” (after membership is confirmed) is promised, but, for the purpose of this review, the focus must be on ‘Module 1’ which is the first week’s offering by Cortez and crew. Is there a seduction mastermind at work here? Is there anything cerebral and intellectually stimulating on offer or is it all strictly thinking with the small head? The Mastermind Club review will offer a verdict.

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Summary:

Mastermind Club beats its chest with the best of them. It promises to be all about action for guys who want action. It certainly offers a lot in terms of both direction and content. And, to its credit, includes different offerings and viewpoints from other ‘leading’ dating gurus. However, what is on offer goes in every possible direction conceivable in the dating scene. And the training has no cohesion – whatsoever.

This reviewer has complained in the reviews of other dating courses that they desperately needed editing, as they simply had too much going on. Mastermind Club suffers from that too, with the additional problem that it doesn’t even have a centre from which to work. A simple title using the word ‘mastermind’ does not not a mastermind make.

One needs to know how to become a mastermind. This training course gives no clear path as to how to achieve that. It boldly boasts that it follows no structure, that there are no ‘beginner’ or ‘advanced’ levels. Yet it is an idle boast without substance. And it makes no sense either. A learning ‘journey’ may have been just the thing needed to make Mastermind Club more structured and, yes, more credible.

Mastermind Club is a mess precisely because it has no clear, set direction and no recognizable premise or hook. It fires in every direction, like some Warner Brothers cartoon character run amok with a shotgun for the first time. Mastermind Club roars out to all the ‘action’ guys out there – and, for all its many directions and ploys, lands up little more than a whimper.

The Lowdown…

There’s no ‘beginner’s’ modules leading onto ‘advanced’ modules, i.e. the progression for most training of this ilk, if not most training courses generally. Rather, the approach is to give it all to a guy across all modules, with learning that is not progressive but multi-level. The premise here is like spreading one’s bets at a roulette table, including betting on both black and red, rather than hedging them.

As there is no ‘set learning curve’ to this training course, so there is no set sequence to how one should approach the files and modules on offer. There are 6 PDFs, 2 MP3 files and 5 MP4 files that one can pick and choose from. The first PDF / video combo on the menu is “Facebook Seduction Secrets” and the final video is titled “Secrets of Inner Game” with a whole bunch in between. It’s like ordering at McDonald’s, folks.

Let’s start with the first on the menu, shall we. So I click on what I assume will be the PDF link and what do I get: some cheap-looking video with a banner headline that screams: “Controversial “Trick” That Chemically Alters A Woman’s Mind To Lust For You…Obsessively” with a byline that reads thus:

(This video could be taken down without notice so we urge you to WATCH TO THE VERY END)

Now, I don’t know about you, but I fucking hate it when I click on a link expecting one thing, only to get an entirely different topic, never mind an entirely different file format – and in letters and caps that big! Fuck, is that annoying! So, instead of getting tips on Facebook Seduction I get some guy called Brandon giving me dubious (read: crap) tips on how to chemically ‘turn on’ a girl. Whatever.

The video version of the ways to conquer Facebook seduction offers mostly lame drivel on how to attain this. Stuff like shots of you doing a daring move on a snowboard make you look badass (great) whilst those showing you playing chess make you look like a dork (“bad”). Here’s a screenshot of one of Dean’s pearls of Facebook wisdom (which effectively excludes about 80% of guys, but, hey, no problem!):

Facebook seduction tips – only sporty guys need bother…

The PDF of ‘Fundamentals of Inner Game (Confidence Secrets) actually has some interesting gambits. The principal strategy, according to Cortez, is to “maintaining a woman’s interest in you, so that she never has second thoughts or strays towards another guy, is making her view you as a prize that she has to work to hold on to”.

The logic here is that if a guy places high standards on what he expects from a girl, then he will make her feel that attaining him is a prize, precisely because he sets the bar so high and is so demanding. It’s an interesting proposition, even if it’s doubtful if any guy can maintain that level of high standards (even self-restraint, possibly?) when in pursuit of the prize. That is the “inner game” to which Cortez refers.

I actually dig this “high value” approach that Cortez espouses in this training. There is an element of emotional subterfuge in the theory, even the good ol’ mindfucking that so often rears its head in this type of training. But at least it shows a strategy of some sort. And, hey, any guy that tells other guys to use early Woody Allen films as a way of showing off to her at least has a sense of humour – even a bit of class.

The two audio clips should dovetail into these topics of building confidence and the “inner game” that Cortez advocates. The first audio (‘Building “Core Confidence”‘) is the first, and at just under six minutes has Cortez answering (and sounding like a preppy Vince Vaughan) to a guy’s e-mail to him about confidence. I just couldn’t download the second audio (‘Inner Game Audio Download’), much as I tried.

‘How To Turn a Good Girl Bad’ is a PDF that could have been as naff as the title suggests. There are a few decent nuggets available, such as a guy asking her how he can give her pleasure, which is at least not blatantly Neanderthal. Then, because there must be balance in the world of Dean Cortez, there’s this: “For example, some women fear that they would catch a disease by giving a guy a blowjob (performing oral sex on him.). It’s a valid fear”. Moving on…

‘Skyrocket Your Confidence With Women’ is a PDF with promise, but it soon pigeonholes women as if they all act the same and all want the same things out of guys. And it’s mostly simplistic, with an example being, “Women hate to be with a man that they feel like they can control. Women are repulsed by such men, and will at best keep them as friends”. Really? Tell that to all the pussy whipped husbands and boyfriends of the world.

Here’s an interesting statistic offered in the PDF of ‘The Average Guy’s How To Pick Up Girls Bible’, which states: “In a study conducted by the University of Waterloo, 85% of the correspondents expressed that charm was the principle reason for their attraction to the opposite individual”. That should be reason for relief for many ordinary or not-so-hot guys, right?

Wrong. Cortez sets one up for the ‘charm offensive’ being the way for average guys to score girls, only to then proceed down that old, tired, hackneyed road, i.e. in order to get the girl, especially the hot girl, a guy needs to be aloof, play mind games with her and basically make her desperate for him. In effect, he needs to be a jerk, because nice guys, whether we like it or not, don’t usually score. The usual…

The first video I checked out was ‘4 Cocky Flirting Tactics To Use on Girls’ as hosted by one of Cortez’s leading trainers, a scrawny, lisping guy by the name of Brandon Hunter (ever notice how all these guys seem to have male porn star names?). Here is Brandon schpieling on about how to be cocky and flirtatious without really telling us how:

Brandon Hunter talking about being a cocky flirt…

Adam Lyons makes a more convincing coach in the video ‘How To Approach Hot Girls’. He’s a Brit who at least has some wit and charisma about him, and I half-wished it had been him who had done most of the hosting for this Mastermind Club training. He enacts actual scenarios at a make-believe bar with some girls – they’re not terribly convincing all of the time, but at least his set-ups have some logic to them.

Jon Sinn (yet another porno-sounding name), on the other hand, is a pickup guru who has some interesting, even convincing theories in the ‘Why Seduction Begins At Hello’ video. He speaks of how guys are not taught how to be sexual or to play the sexual game (true), but the guy looks too washed out for his own good. At least he has a commanding voice and demeanour, which gives him some credibility.

The video ‘Secrets of Inner Game’ is the last on the menu, and also comes last in its impact. It features a guy called Christian Hudson at some dating convention (‘The 21 Convention’) held in July 2009. Hudson rambles on in a monotone that rivals Valium in its soporific abilities, and has the charisma of a wooden door. To imagine that guys in the audience paid (good money, no doubt) to watch this bore in action…

I simply could not download the video about daytime pickup tricks as hosted by Alex Coulson. To be honest, there were also titles in the Mastermind Club menu that seemed out of place – these included the PDF of ‘How To Cope After a Broken Relationship,’ which felt to touchy-feely for what was on offer here. And as for the ‘Body Building Training’ manual…possibly useful, no doubt, but bound to irk many guys.

Extras

This is what Cortez proclaims on the main page of Mastermind Club: “It’s my mission to over-deliver and give you an incredible amount of value in every module.” Does he over-deliver? Well, each video offering seems to have one or more free video offerings attached to them. These included this one, the screenshot of which really says it all:

Strip Club Seduction – and on the cheap too!

There is an ‘Extra Resources’ tab on the main menu on the landing page. Some of the first few bonus videos are the exact same ones listed under the Mastermind Club main menu of files. How then are they ‘free bonuses’? Other bonuses include ‘Magnetic Messaging’ by Rob Judge, which was mostly rubbished in a review by this very review site.

There’s a bonus video called ‘Girlfriend in a Week’ which is trashy nonsense to the core and a ‘Special Video’ called ‘7 Deadly Sins Of Re-Attraction (More Tips On Getting Your Ex-Girlfriend Back)’, which at least has osme interesting scenarios and possible winning tricks to get the girl who got away back into a guy’s life. It’s amusing.

A real gem (not) is a video that is mercifully short at less than 5 minutes that has some guy telling you what daft ‘costume’ will get the girls on Halloween. The costume is naff to the hilt. It’s called ‘The Panty Dropper Sequence’ – I kid you not. It’s ghastly shit.

That familiar guru, Tao of Badass, makes a guest appearance yet again, with five ‘super bonuses’ on offer from him. ‘From Limp To Raging Hard: Secrets To Natural, Vein-Bulging Erections Of Steel’ is one offering many guys will no doubt gravitate toward, although I found the ‘Discover The “Bio System” for Male Enhancement’ bonus video admittedly very interesting – maybe even worth a try?

And how does it look and feel?

Tacky comes to mind. It looks tacky. Even more generic soft porn website-like are the visuals used for PDF and audio file covers, as well as stock photos throughout the site, with big-busted and curvy chicks aplenty. The visuals pander to every conceivable fratboy wet dream imaginable about what constitutes a hot woman. It’s pathetic in that way.

The layout of Mastermind Club is pure blogland (or is that bogland?) with nary a whiff of a proper website in sight. Clicking on links doesn’t always take one where they want or think they should be going, and that can be bloody annoying. Navigation is generally okay, even if most of the icons on offer are as generic soft porn website-looking as possible.

The videos are as crappy and dull as most of these dating training videos tend to be, whilst PDF designs and layouts are amateurish. I am quickly becoming convinced that 80% of these dating gurus use the same snotty-nosed, pimple-faced high school geek working in his mom’s basement as their website ‘designer’, so alike are the visuals and layout of these various sites! I’m totally convinced, I tell you.

What’s To Like About Mastermind Club?

Cortez makes this statement: “The Mastermind Club program took me years to put together.” I can’t comment on that, but I can certainly attest to the fact that there is a lot on offer here. The content for Mastermind Club is prodigious, and Cortez must be given some kudos for trying to offer his members all the material on offer.

I like that other dating gurus are featured so prominently among both the principal Mastermind Club offering and the bonus extras. It lends the training an aura of offering different perspectives into the beasts that are dating and hookups, which does give Mastermind Club some added credibility.

There are some worthwhile nuggets here and there of interesting insight into the male psyche and how guys believe they should behave versus how they should actually behave. It’s also commendable that Mastermind Club recognizes that women do need to be shown some respect and asked about what they want (desires and lusts included) so that a guy can score without always being The Dating Caveman.

What’s Not To Like About Mastermind Club?

Whilst it has been cited as commendable that Cortez offers members so much material, methinks that it is more a case of smoke and mirrors set to camouflage rather than truly enlighten. Why? Because the prevailing feeling one has of Mastermind Club is that it is an essentially fractured training course, lacking in cohesion and a central, convincing premise. This is a big problem that occurs in more dating training courses than not. Good luck trying to explain what Mastermind Club is in one, simple sentence or two. It just isn’t possible, because there is no tangible, easily explained training course at offer.

This should be an adult course aimed at adult men trying to score/screw/date adult women. But most of it is plastered with soft porn visuals and titles that are clickbait heaven for horny guys who want to score the hottest chicks with the least amount of hassle. Except real life is not like that, which is why the constant soft-porn-stripper-heaven wishful thinking that parades for real tips on scoring and dating simply don’t ring true.

Mastermind of what? Club of who? The name for this training course is misguided and, sorry to say, inexplicable. Hell, even the logo makes it look like it will be brainy stuff! No guy will come to the end of training that is so all over the place, so scattershot and so shove-it-all-in being the mastermind of anything, let alone know how to score girls and be a success on the club (including strip club) scene.

Conclusion

Mastermind Club will definitely appeal to certain guys – most specifically of a certain type and of a certain age or maturity. This has a very specific demographic of the big-breasted, strip joint-loving type of guy. That may seem patronizing and even harsh, but that is the only assumption that can be reached with what is on offer by Mr Cortez and Co.

There may be a lot of material and content, including by other ‘leading’ dating gurus, but that does little to mask the fact that Mastermind Club is a dating sailing boat without a rudder and a compass. There seems to be a common logic among certain dating gurus that as long as they offer lots and lots and lots of material it matters very little that the central training has no real purpose or direction. Do many guys actually fall for that? Maybe they do.

This is training with materials and visuals that look tacky because, to be very honest, it is mostly tacky. In that it has only itself to blame. You can’t proclaim to being classy and important when you present yourself as crass and pitching to the lowest common denominator. Furthermore, there is very little on offer that is conceptually novel or thought-provoking.

Mastermind Club is a great name for a dating course. It sounds empowered and empowering for any guy wishing to join the ‘exclusive club’ that lets him in on all the secrets of scoring and dating girls. It connotes intelligence and a real game plan. Alas, there is no game plan here. Just lots and lots of…stuff. What Mastermind Club will probably achieve is a guy being a Jack(off) of dating games, and a master of none.